Suicide Victim`s Sentence Defended

February 20, 1986|By Peter Aronson, Staff writer

Federal officials said on Wednesday that a Lake Worth man who killed himself on Tuesday instead of going to jail had indeed committed a very serious crime and the eight-year sentence he was given was just.

``It is an unfortunate occurrence, but the fact that he committed suicide doesn`t make him any less guilty,`` said Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Kamp, chief of the northern division.

The man, Einar J. Tretten, 36, of Lake Worth, shot himself in the head early on Tuesday outside the Federal Building in West Palm Beach instead of surrendering to federal officials to begin serving an eight-year prison term. His attorney, Robert Foley of Palm Beach, said Tretten would have been eligible for parole in 18 to 20 months.

In November, through a plea bargain, Tretten pleaded guilty to one count of illegal possession of an unregistered machine gun. According to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, on three separate occasions last summer, Tretten sold to undercover agents rifles illegally altered to fire as automatic weapons.